Cumméne (Cummíne, Cummian) Find (‘the white’) (d. 669), sometimes misleadingly given as Cumméne Ailbe (from Latin gen. albi), was 7th abbot of Iona (657–69) and successor to Suibne (qv) of the moccu Urthri. His genealogy places him among the Cenél Conaill; his father's name is given variously in the genealogies as Érnán, Dínertach, or Fiachna. He was the nephew of Ségéne (qv) (fl. 623–52), 5th abbot of Iona, and grandnephew of the 3rd abbot, Laisrén, who had served under Colum Cille (qv); like his predecessor abbots, he was a kinsman of Colum Cille. He appointed Colmán (qv) as 3rd abbot of Lindisfarne; the split between Northumbria and the Columban confederation following the Easter controversy and the synod of Whitby (664) occurred during Colmán's tenure of office. As a result, the Irish monks withdrew from Lindisfarne and returned to Ireland with the relics of Áedán (qv).
The effect of the withdrawal on Iona's prestige may not have been as great as might be inferred from Bede's account, but it may have prompted Cumméne to write his ‘Liber de virtutibus S. Columbae’, which was completed some sixty years after the death of Colum Cille and subsequently used by Adomnán (qv) in his ‘Vita Columbae’, written in defence of the reputation of Iona's founder. The ‘Liber de virtutibus’ gives some interesting information on Iona's political connections, especially Colum Cille's relationship with Áedán (qv) son of Gabrán and his successors, and on recent disasters.
In 661 Cumméne visited Ireland, where he may have stayed at the Columban monastery on Rathlin Island. He died in 669, perhaps as result of the cholera plague of 664–8 and subsequently, which took the lives of so many of Ireland's monastic personnel. Adomnán gives his name as ‘Cummeneus Albus’. It is possible that the grammatical tract ‘Anonymus ad Cuimnanum’ was addressed to Cumméne. His feast-day is given in the martyrologies as 24 February.